Two Britons on a recruiting drive for Gurkha soldiers for the British army were among five people feared kidnapped by Nepal rebels, officials said on Monday.

Prem Narayan Sharma, district administrator of Baglung, around 300 kms west of the capital, told Reuters the five had been taken on Sunday night.

"The five people, including two British nationals, have been kidnapped by suspected Maoists," he told Reuters.

Peter Bullock, the Assistant Military Attache at the British Embassy in Kathmandu confirmed the incident but could not say how many Britons were among those taken.

"A small group of about five people have been out of contact since last night," he told Reuters. "We understand a group claiming to be Maoists approached them yesterday and asked them to come and discuss recruitment issues with their commanders."

The Maoists have been fighting since 1996 to set up a communist republic in the impoverished nation tucked between China and India.

Around 3,400 Gurkhas -- feared Nepali fighters who have served with British armed forces for the past 200 years - currently serve in British military ranks.

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